We received so many amazing submissions for the art contest our ULINK team hosted (calling-all-artists.html)! A panel of 10 scientists, including faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students reviewed and voted on all submissions. Thanks to all the contestants for their patience as we reviewed their work, we are grateful that you took the time to share your art with us. Today, we are pleased to announce the winners in each category below: Honorable Mention (All categories):
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Lionfish are marine fish native to the Indian and Pacific oceans. In U.S. coastal waters, NOAA encourages fishermen to catch as many lionfish as possible to reduce the populations of these non-native species which have no natural predators here. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) sponsors Lionfish Derby Days to support these efforts and provide education to community members on safe practices for catching and eating Lionfish. Members of our team attended REEF’s 14th annual Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Festival on September 10, 2023 at the Postcard Inn in Islamorada, FL. During the final Team Weigh-In and Drop Off, REEF conducted educational activities which included demonstrations of safe handling and fileting of lionfish harvested by Derby Participants. Our team members were allowed to collect samples of ichthyocarbonate and share with community members about our research into the role of marine fish in the global carbon cycle, and potential beneficial reuse strategies for ichthyocarbonate. For more information about lionfish in the Florida Keys, please see the NOAA webpage: https://floridakeys.noaa.gov/animals/lionfishthreat.html Thanks to REEF for allowing us to participate, and to the Derby Teams for allowing us to sample their fish! Our interdisciplinary U-LINK team is hosting an art contest for middle school and high school students to raise awareness about the role of marine fish in Earth's oceans and their impact on climate.
Submissions welcomed through September 20th, 2023. Please submit your sketch here: https://forms.gle/udsgVao4QZK5fmTC9 Details: Our U-LINK team is working to identify useful ways to reuse marine fish waste produced in land-based aquaculture facilities. In order to raise awareness about the important role that marine finfish waste plays in Earth's oceans, we are hosting an art competition to produce statuettes designed by our community members! To learn more about our project, click here! The winning fish sketch that receives the most votes for each age category, including (1) high-school and (2) middle school students will be made with concrete containing carbonate minerals produced by marine fish to make 3D statuettes. We will share these statuettes with community members at outreach events. Winners will be announced on our webpage, and given a statuette made with their design! Runners-up in each category will receive Rosenstiel School swag. Announcement of Winners: Winners will be announced on our website on October 16th, 2023, and also contacted by email. Please be sure to include a parent or guardian's email address in the google form so we can share the good news with you and find a way to deliver a statuette with your design. Colleen and Amanda teamed up with Megan and Amel from the Stable Isotope Laboratory to share a video experiment on the power of pH for two Rosenstiel School events recently: (1) Women and Girls Exploring Science and (2) Diversity in Science. Through both of these events, we interacted with more than 250 registered participants to share this activity and answer questions about science and career development. The supplies for the activity are generally found at most grocery stores. If you are interested in trying this at home, please check out this link (https://education.ocean.org/oceanlitlib/assignments/1114405) for more information, or email us at [email protected].
The 2020 Annual Meeting of the Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory-Center for Carbonate Research was held virtually this year. Colleen gave her inaugural presentation on the geochemical composition of sediments from the Tuamotu Archipelago, and Amanda gave presentations on whitings and the identification of subtle zones of diagenesis using geochemical and petrophysical analysis.
In October, Agouron Institute Post-Doctoral Geobiology Fellow Amanda Oehlert traveled to the Bush Heritage Australia Hamelin Reserve Station Stay to conduct fieldwork with colleagues Dr. Erica Suosaari (Bush Heritage) and Cat Cushenan (University of Algarve). During this productive field season, Amanda and Erica accomplished several project goals, including collecting samples of the surface waters of Hamelin Pool, sampling ground waters using piezometers around the margins of Hamelin Pool, and collecting sediment samples. Water sample collection was supported by Bush Heritage Australia who provided the use of their scientific research vessel, the Hamelin Explorer, which was captained by Tony Loechte.
These samples will be analyzed for a variety of geochemical parameters including isotope composition, rare earth element geochemistry, and trace element concentrations. The data produced by these analyses will help constrain the sources and sinks of rare earth elements in Hamelin Pool stromatolites, sediments, and waters, which will provide modern calibration for interpretation of rare earth element patterns in stromatolites throughout the geological record. In addition, Amanda and Erica are interested in understanding seasonal variation in the chemistry of Hamelin Pool surface waters and how that impacts stromatolite formation. Finally, a new collaborative project was created between Dr. Oehlert at BME, Professors Reid and Pourmand at the University of Miami, and Dr. Erica Suosaari, Tony Loechte, and Larissa Lauder of Bush Heritage Australia. This new project will investigate the geochemical signature of aeolian dust arriving in Hamelin Pool, which has implications for the rare earth element geochemistry project. Tony, Larissa, and Amanda installed two new dust collectors on the Hamelin Station Reserve, which Tony and Larissa will be sampling weekly. Additional field support is being provided by Hamelin Volunteers Rex George and Gail Holt, and our collaborator Cat Cushenan from University of Algarve, who provided drone imagery of several field sites which has given us a new perspective on the sedimentological processes affecting the geochemistry of Hamelin Pool. We are looking forward to the results of this interesting new project and are grateful to Bush Heritage Australia for their ongoing support of our research endeavors. |
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